Optimizing wheat productivity through integrated management of irrigation, nutrition, and organic amendments

• Published in: BMC plant biology Vol. 24; no. 1; pp. 548 - 15
• Main Authors: Farouk, A S, Abdelghany, Ahmed M, Shehab, A A, Alwakel, Sh E, Makled, Khaled M, Naif, Eman, Ren, Honglei, Lamlom, Sobhi F
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England BioMed Central Ltd 14.06.2024; BioMed Central; BMC
• Subjects: Agricultural chemicals; Agricultural Irrigation - methods; Agricultural production; Agricultural research; Agriculture; Bicarbonates; Bicarbonates - metabolism; Carbonates; Climate change; Composting; Composting - methods; Composts; Cost control; Crop growth; Crop Productivity; Crop yield; Crop yields; Crops; Cultivars; Decomposition; Drip irrigation; Egypt; Emissions; Environmental aspects; Fertilizers; Food and nutrition; Grain; Growing season; Irrigation; Irrigation systems; Leaf area; Leaf area index; Manures; Methods; Natural resources; Nutrition; Physiological aspects; Physiology; Plants; Potassium; Potassium bicarbonate; Potassium Compounds; Productivity; Soil - chemistry; Soil amendments; Soil conditioners; Spray irrigation; Sprinkler systems; Sustainable agriculture; Triticum - growth & development; Triticum - metabolism; Variance analysis; Water management; Water resources; Wheat; Egypt; Composting; Crop Productivity; Sustainable agriculture; Potassium bicarbonate; Drip irrigation
• ISSN: 1471-2229; 1471-2229
• DOI: 10.1186/s12870-024-05213-2

Enhancing wheat productivity by implementing a comprehensive approach that combines irrigation, nutrition, and organic amendments shows potential for collectively enhancing crop performance. This study examined the individual and combined effects of using irrigation systems (IS), foliar potassium bicarbonate (PBR) application, and compost application methods (CM) on nine traits related to the growth, physiology, and yield of the Giza-171 wheat cultivar. Analysis of variance revealed significant (P ≤ 0.05) main effects of IS, PBR, and CM on wheat growth, physiology, and yield traits over the two growing seasons of the study. Drip irrigation resulted in a 16% increase in plant height, leaf area index, crop growth rate, yield components, and grain yield compared to spray irrigation. Additionally, the application of foliar PBR at a concentration of 0.08 g/L boosted these parameters by up to 22% compared to the control. Furthermore, the application of compost using the role method resulted in enhanced wheat performance compared to the treatment including mix application. Importantly, the combined analysis revealed that the three-way interaction between the three factors had a significant effect (P ≤ 0.05) on all the studied traits, with drip irrigation at 0.08 g PBR rate and role compost application method (referred as Drip_0.08g_Role) resulting in the best performance across all traits, while sprinkle irrigation without PBR and conventional mixed compost method (referred as sprinkle_CK_Mix) produced the poorest results. This highlights the potential to synergistically improve wheat performance through optimized agronomic inputs.